165 


125 


GIFT   OF 


MINING   AS   A  PROFESSION 

INCLUDING  FIRST  STAGES  OF  METALLURGY 

By  HENNEN  JENNINGS 


AND 


The  Miner  as  a  Pioneer  of  Civilization 

By  T.  A.  RICKARD 


Being   addresses   delivered   at   the  Semi-Centennial  of  the 
Columbia  School  of  Mines  in  New  York  City,  May  29,  1914 


Printed  in  advance  in  the  MINING  AND  SCIENTIFIC  PRESS  by  the 
courtesy  of  the  School  of  Mines  Quarterly  and  republished  by  the  authors 


MINING  AS  A  PROFESSION,  INCLUDING  FIRST 
STAGES  OF  METALLURGY 


By  HENNEN  JENNINGS 

To  consider  man  without  the  earliest  primitive  contributions  of  the 
miner  and  metallurgist  takes  us  back  to  savagery.  Man's  greatest  en- 
dowment is  his  wonderful  and  crafty  brain  cells  with  their  latent  powers 
of  development,  which  have  shown  him  the  necessity  of  supplementing 
his  own  strength  by  outside  aids,  and  then  gradually  and  persistently 
obtaining  the  materials  for  his  needs  and  fashioning  them  into  tools  of 
power,  and  finally  incorporating  and  making  them  a  veritable  part  of 
his  being. 

His  first  great  advances  were  the  commanding  of  fire,  the  use  of  stone 
implements,  then  wooden  bow  and  arrow.  By  these  he  worked  himself 
into  the  stone  age,  but  was  still  brutal,  weak,  and  with  little  historical 
recording  power.  It  was  not  until  he  delved  below  the  surface  of  the 
earth  for  materials  that  he  was  able  to  fashion  the  sword,  spear,  fire  arms, 
protective  armor,  plow,  hoe,  pruning-hook,  pitchfork,  scythe,  tires,  axe, 
saw,  plane,  etc.  It  was  only  with  metal  tools  that  great  agricultural 
development  began,  and  it  only  reached  its  present  magnitude  when  fur- 
ther supported  by  the  metals  in  the  form  of  railroads,  steam  vessels,  har- 
vesting machinery,  etc. 

Mining  and  agriculture  are  the  only  basic  productive  pursuits  of  man, 
and  they  are  both  fostered  each  by  the  other,  and  both  dependent  on 
mother  earth.  The  one  skims  her  surface,  the  other  goes  deeper.  Agri- 
culture furnishes  man  with  food  for  existence,  but  mining  gives  him  the 
materials  for  power,  art,  and  civilization.  Without  metals  the  scientists' 
tools  for  experimentation  and  determination  would  not  be  possible,  nor 
the  great  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  thought  by  means  of  the  printing 
press,  photographic  appliances,  telegraph,  cable,  and  the  telephone. 

Nothing  can  more  forcibly  illustrate  the  might  of  man  as  given  him 
by  the  metals  than  the  modern  battleship.  What  could  all  the  war  ves- 
sels of  history,  up  to  20  years  ago,  do  against  one  modern  battleship 
adequately  supplied  with  ammunition,  if  they  were  drawn  up  in  open 
battle  array  ?  Could  not  this  one  ship,  by  its  superior  speed,  gun  power, 
and  armor,  annihilate  at  will  the  whole  fleets  of  history,  even  if  com- 
manded by  Vikings,  Nelsons,  and  Farraguts?  Is  not  the  control  of 
sea  power  the  cardinal  factor  in  war,  and  thus  has  not  modern  man 
become  a  war  god  indeed  by  means  of  his  engineering  genius? 

In  contrast  to  the  bewildering  might  of  the  battleship's  guns,  with 
their  1400  Ib.  weight,  and  2600  ft.  per  second  velocity  arguments,  the 
metals  have  given  man  fingers  so  delicate,  untiring,  and  accurate  that 


IJ  MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

they  can  work  and  control  threads  so  fine  that  fleecy  muslins  and^laces 
grow  in  abundance  under  their  touch. 

Let  us  now  deal  with  mining  on  a  solid  and  broad  statistical  basis, 
attempting  afterward  to  clothe  the  dry  bones  of  statistics  with  further 
meaning. 

In  this  brief  sketch  it  is  not  possible  to  incorporate  the  statistics  and 
results  achieved  in  mining  in  all  countries.  What  is  selected,  it  is  hoped, 
will  be  considered  typical  for  all  countries,  and  instructive  to  all  inter- 
ested in  mining  in  a  big  way. 

Great  Britain  produced  more  coal  than  all  countries  of  the  world  put 
together  until  1871,  and  more  iron  until  1885.  The  British  Empire  now 
produces  60%  of  the  world's  gold.  It  was  only  in  1899  that  the  United 
States  surpassed  Great  Britain  in  coal  output,  and  in  1897  took  the  de- 
cided lead  in  iron. 

Germany's  production  of  iron  exceeded  that  of  Great  Britain  in  1905, 
and  it  now  mines  about  the  same  amount  of  coal.  To  Germany  must  be 
accorded  priority  in  mining  literature  and  technical  training,  as  evi- 
denced by  the  publication  of  'Agricola  De  Re  Metallica'1  in  1556.  The 
Freiberg  and  Berlin  technical  schools  were  founded  in  the  18th  century. 

The  first  English-speaking  school  of  mines  was  that  of  the  Royal  School 
of  Mines,  London,  founded  in  1853.  Although  having  but  a  small  out- 
put of  graduates  per  year,  it  has  been  distinguished  for  the  scientific 
eminence  of  its  professors  and  the  loyalty  and  ability  of  its  graduates. 

The  world's  mineral  production  for  1912  shows  that  the  United  States 
produced  20%  of  the  gold,  39%  of  the  coal,  63%  of  the  petroleum,  41% 
of  the  iron,  55%  of  the  copper,  and  over  30%  of  the  lead  and  zinc,  which 
gives  it  an  undisputed  lead  of  any  one  country.  The  statistics  of  the 
United  States  are  thus  most  representative,  and,  as  the  most  available 
to  the  speaker,  they  will  be  extensively  used.  Difficulty  of  obtaining 
reliable,  comprehensive  mining  statistics  increases  immensely  as  one  goes 
back  into  the  past,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  less  and  less  to  record. 

It  will  be  typical  and  instructive  to  examine  the  last  official  tabular  state- 
ment of  mineral  products  of  the  United  States,  as  given  by  the  Geological 
Survey  for  calendar  years  1903  to  1912. 

In  the  32-year  summary  of  the  products,  it  is  found  that  the  produc- 
tion of  the  metals  has  increased  from  $186,000,000  to  $867,000,000,  or 
475%;  the  non-metals  from  $173,000,000  to  $1,376,000,000  or  775  per 
cent. 

Analyzing  the  10-year  statement,  it  is  found  that  there  are  71  mineral 
products  tabulated,  all  showing  material  yearly  increases  in  production. 
Note  especially  the  great  and  striking  increase  in  the  production  of  alu- 
minum, mirroring,  as  it  does,  the  successful  metallurgical  obtainment  of 
a  highly  useful  metal  from  abundantly  distributed  clay  compounds.  The 
increase  in  cement  records  the  great  growth  of  modern  concrete  construc- 

iTranslated  from  the  Latin  into  English  by  Herbert  Clark  Hoover  and  Lou 
Hoover,  1912. 


MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

tion.  The  output  of  sulphur  in  various  forms  indicates  the  sulphuric  acid 
consumption,  and  thus  gauges  the  growth  of  the  chemical  and  industrial 
arts.  The  phosphate  rock  showing  points  to  the  ever  increasing  helping 
hand  mining  is  extending  to  agriculture. 

Out  of  the  total  valuation  of  $2,244,000,000  for  all  the  products  from 
the  United  States,  coal,  petroleum,  iron,  copper,  and  gold  were  estimated 
at  $1,579,000,000,  or  70%.  These  metals  are  so  representative  and  vital 
that  a  just  and  comprehensive  idea  of  the  growth  of  mining,  metallurgy, 
and  engineering  can  be  obtained  by  following  their  production.  This, 
in  a  broad  way,  can  be  best  done  by  sketch  diagrams,  large  units  of 
products  being  plotted  to  small  scale. 

2Diagram  No.  1  shows  the  yearly  production  for  the  world,  all  coun- 
tries included,  of  coal,  petroleum,  iron,  copper,  and  gold,  from  1800  to 
1912,  and  also  gives  the  average  London  price  back  to  1873. 

2Diagram  No.  2  gives  a  similar  showing  of  the  same  mineral  products 
for  the  United  States.  The  prices  per  unit  for  the  products  are  esti- 
mated at  pit's  mouth  and  are  extended  farther  into  the  past.  It  further 
shows  the  growth  of  the  whole  population  of  the  country  since  1800;  the 
number  of  men  engaged  in  mining  since  1850 ;  the  increase  in  railway 
mileage  since  1840 ;  also  the  growth  of  deposits  in  all  reporting  banks  in 
the  United  States  since  1867. 

From  the  world's  diagram  it  can  be  calculated  for  period  under  review, 
that  the  last  15  years'  production  of  coal  has  been  equivalent  to  the  97 
previous  years.  That  the  last  8  years'  production  of  petroleum  has  been 
greater  than  all  previous  years  in  history.  That  the  last  12  years'  pro- 
duction of  iron  was  equivalent  to  the  100  previous  years.  That  the  last 
11  years'  production  of  copper  was  equivalent  to  the  101  previous  years. 
That  the  last  17  years'  production  of  gold  was  equivalent  to  the  95  pre- 
vious years. 

In  the  same  way  the  last  years'  production  for  the  United  States  will 
be  found  to  balance  all  the  previous  years.  For  coal,  the  last  11  years; 
petroleum,  the  last  8  years;  iron,  the  last  11  years;  copper,  the  last  9 
years;  and  gold,  the  last  22  years. 

The  wonderful  modernness  of  big  mining  can  also  be  further  realized 
by  attempting  to  obtain  any  statistics  of  production  previous  to  1800, 
such  attempts  leading  one  to  the  belief  that  all  the  coal,  iron,  and  cop- 
per mined  in  all  ages,  for  the  whole  world,  prior  to  this  date  would  not 
amount  to  the  probable  world's  production  for  the  years  1913  and  1914. 
Petroleum  practically  came  into  use  only  in  1860.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  total  production  of  gold  from  1493  to  1800  was  $2,371,000,000,  where- 
as from  1800  to  1912  it  amounted  to  $12,411,000,000. 

2Mr.  E.  W.  Parker,  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  extended  effective 
and  kind  aid  in  the  obtainment  of  the  data  for  the  mineral  production.  The  data 
for  the  bank  deposit  curve  was  taken  from  the  National  Monetary  Commission 
Report.  The  growth  of  population,  of  miners,  and  of  railways  is  as  given  by 
United  States  census  returns.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  California  and  Australia 
caused  the  great  jump  of  the  gold  curve  1850-1855. 


4  MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

It  is  seen  that  the  selling  prices  of  the  mineral  products  at  the  London 
market  and  locality  of  output  in  the  United  States  were  higher  in  the 
early  years  than  the  later  ones.  Thus  the  present  great  increase  in  cost 
of  living  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  unit  advances  of  the  products  of  the 
mineral  kingdom.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  the  cost  per  ton  for 
coal  at  pit's  mouth  in  the  United  States  is  less  than  the  cost  per  ton  at 
pit's  mouth  in  Great  Britain. 

Fuels  are  most  necessary  for  the  metallurgy  of  the  metals,  and  are  store- 
houses of  energy.  In  1912  the  United  States'  coal  production  was  534,- 
000,000  tons,  and  petroleum  222,000,000  barrels.  They  both  have  great 
industrial  value  besides  that  of  fuel,  but  our  time  will  not  permit  of 
this  consideration,  or  include  natural  gas  in  our  estimates.  To  obtain 
some  idea  of  the  meaning  of  the  force  locked  up  in  these  enormous  amounts 
of  fuel,  it  is  only  necessary  to  calculate  the  work  that  would  be  given 
out  if  they  were  all  (and  which  was  largely  the  case)  used  for  the  pro- 
duction of  steam-power,  with  at  best  not  more  than  15%  of  the  latent 
power  utilized. 

Petroleum  in  the  form  of  gasoline  can  be  more  efficiently  used  for 
power  in  the  automobile  and  other  forms  of  the  gasoline  engine,  but 
reducing  the  222,000,000  barrels  to  the  coal  equivalent  of  51,000,000  tons, 
we  would  have  the  steam  force  of  585,000,000  tons  of  coal.  Dividing  this 
among  100,000,000  inhabitants  would  give  5.85  tons  per  capita.  The 
equivalent  of  5.85  tons  in  horse-power  can  be  taken  at  5850  horse-power 
hours  or  as  much  energy  as  would  be  given  out  at  pumping  by  a  man 
in  9850  days,  or  27  years.  This  coal  could  thus  give  out  force  by  the 
steam-engine  equal  to  a  population  of  2,700,000,0003  strong  men. 

The  life  of  coal  and  petroleum  deposits  has  been  variously  estimated. 
Should  the  increment  of  increase  in  yearly  production  continue,  the  known 
fields  of  petroleum  would  probably  be  exhausted  within  a  comparatively 
few  years,  and  coal  in  one  or  two  centuries,  but  should  the  present  popu- 
lation and  per  capita  consumption  not  greatly  increase,  the  coalfields 
might  last  one  or  two  thousand  years,  and  the  petroleum  possibly  over  a 
hundred. 

Should  fuel  outputs  continue  progressively  to  increase,  greater  and 
greater  numbers  of  the  population  must  be  employed  in  their  mining; 
also  a  greater  and  greater  percentage  of  people  would  be  required  to 
generate,  control,  distribute,  and  pay  for  the  power  manufactured.  There 
must  be,  therefore,  a  point  where  the  population  becomes  saturated  with 
power  and  can  use  or  pay  for  no  more  per  capita.  The  less  the  workers, 
the  less  the  number  of  hours  they  work,  the  less  their  efficiency,  the  sooner 
will  this  saturation  be  reached.  This  may  still  be  a  long  way  off,  and 
may  be  greatly  influenced  by  future  invention,  but  approach  is  steadily 
being  made  toward  it.  It  will  be  the  determining  factor  for  final  outputs. 

Under  iron  is  included  steel.     The  steel  is  often  directly  made  from 

sKent  estimates  man's  work  pumping  10  hr.  per  day  =  1,188,000  ft.  Ib.  2  Ib.  coal 
taken  for  hp.  hour  =  1,980,000  ft.  Ib. 


MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION  5 

iron  ores  and  estimated  as  pig  iron.  This  group  includes  tin,  lead,  zinc, 
quicksilver,  aluminum,  platinum,  etc.,  but  it  is  not  feasible  to  deal  with 
them  all,  and  iron  and  copper  in  themselves  are  the  mainstays  and  the  most 
useful  of  the  metals. 

Metals  in  useful  form  can  not  be  readily  obtained  from  their  ores  with- 
out fuel.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fuels  can  not  be  chained  to  great  service 
without  the  use  of  the  metals — for  example,  in  the  form  of  steam-power. 
The  metals  can  be  made  use  of  independently  of  the  fuels  in  manufac- 
turing power  from  falling  water,  rising  tides,  vigorous  breezes,  and  pos- 
sibly burning  sun.  They  are  essential,  as  has  been  explained,  for  all 
manner  of  necessary  tools  and  implements.  Of  late  copper,  tlirough 
dynamos  and  motors,  has  revolutionized  the  production  and  flexible  use 
of  power. 

In  considering  the  importance  of  the  yearly  production  of  those  metals, 
it  must  be  taken  into  consideration  that  they  are  not  destroyed  when 
once  used  as  is  the  case  in  the  fuel  group.  They  are  put  into  machinery 
and  tools  that  may  last  for  many  years,  and  are  again  given  new  life  by 
fire  and  fashioned  into  other  tools  and  machinery  whenever  the  economic 
conditions  justify  such  regeneration. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  metals,  including  the  precious,  are  far  less 
abundantly  distributed  than  the  fuels,  and  their  more  speedy  exhaustion 
is  a  matter  far  more  imminent  and  serious.  The  utmost  parts  of  the 
world  have  been  searched  for  gold,  silver,  copper,  platinum,  tin,  and 
nickel.  Naturally  the  deposits  of  these  metals  that  are  in  most  striking 
evidence  and  abundance  have  already  been  found.  In  the  future  there 
will  be  less  cream  to  skim,  and  a  more  thorough  and  costly  exploration 
and  prospecting  resorted  to.  The  exhaustion,  even  under  the  present 
basis  of  output,  of  the  metals  is  not  so  very  far  afield,  and  their  discovery, 
conservation,  and  right  working  becomes  more  and  more  a  matter  of 
importance  and  difficulty,  and  should  be  given  serious  consideration. 

Under  this  group  silver  is  usually  included,  but  gold  alone  will  be  dis- 
cussed. Gold  has  a  limited  use  in  the  arts,  also  as  an  ornament,  but  its 
chief  value  is  its  concentrated  and  convenient  standard  of  barter.  Whether 
this  started  on  a  basis  of  caprice  or  custom,  it  is  now  firmly  established 
on  a  labor  basis  of  value. 

Gold  coins  can  be  considered  storage  cells  of  human  energy  that  give 
out  a  strong  and  genial  current  of  trade  confidence,  circulating  and  bind- 
ing trade,  and  bringing  together  industries  of  different  peoples,  in  different 
lands,  with  different  customs.  The  vitality  and  value  of  these  cells  is  due 
to  the  labor  elements  poured  into  them — in  other  words,  the  human  diffi- 
culty of  their  obtainment. 

The  history  of  gold  mining  is  almost  uncanny  in  that  it  has  for  ages 
shown  success  and  failure  so  hand  in  hand  that  it  has  taken  a  full  labor 
equivalent  to  obtain  the  gold  unit. 

In  the  greatest  of  all  gold  mines  in  history,  those  of  the  Transvaal, 
there  are  employed  nearly  200,000  black  and  26,000  white  men  to  get  out 


6  MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

a  yearly  return  of  $180,000,000,  and  this  does  not  include  the  labor  ex- 
pended on  the  supplies  and  machinery  shipped  to  the  mines.  It  has  been 
found  that  nearly  three-fourths  of  the  output,  even  of  the  successfully 
producing  mines,  has  been  required  to  meet  the  current  working  expenses. 

The  curves  on  the  diagrams  show  that  the  other  mineral  productions 
have  increased  correspondingly  with  gold.  Gold  may  be  cheapened  by 
future  phenomenal  discovery,  but  until  then  it  rests  on  a  firm  founda- 
tion and  supports  vast  structures  of  credit,  which  have  grown  in  magni- 
tude even  more  rapidly  than  the  gold  output,  as  is  seen  by  the  bank  de- 
posit curve  on  diagram  No.  2.  The  deposits  in  1867  were  less  than  $1,000,- 
000,000,  and  are  now  over  $17,000,000,000. 

It  may  seem  a  waste  of  human  energy  to  pay  so  much  in  labor  for 
the  circulation  of  financial  confidence,  but  confidence  is  necessary  and 
vital,  and  easily  disturbed.  When  nations  can  have  sufficient  confidence 
to  do  away  with  their  costly  war  equipments  of  metal,  they  will  probably 
also  be  able  to  do  away  with  the  gold  metal  standard.  There  does  not, 
however,  seem  to  be  any  immediate  hope  of  their  doing  either,  and  the 
limitation  of  gold  mining  may  be  found  rather  in  its  increasing  scarcity 
and  difficulty  of  obtainment,  as  the  present  goldfields  seem  to  have  about 
attained  their  zenith. 

4Diagram  No.  3  shows  the  birth  and  growth  in  membership  of  the  six 
main  technical  engineering  societies  of  Great  Britain,  which,  in  1912, 
totaled  about  30,000. 

4Diagram  No.  4  shows  the  growth  in  membership  of  five  of  the  tech- 
nical societies  of  the  United  States,  which,  in  1912,  totaled  about  24,000. 

The  digrams  show  the  sudden  and  sympathetic  growth  of  membership 
of  the  societies  compared  to  production  of  the  minerals  and  is  especially 
noticeable  for  the  mechanical  and  electrical  engineers  when  compared 
with  the  production  of  iron  and  copper. 

The  diversity  of  the  mining  and  metallurgical  societies  can  be  accounted 
for  by  the  different  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  coal,  iron,  and  metal- 
liferous mining  engineers,  the  latter  being  often  called  upon  to  do  their 
work  in  distant  lands  far  from  professional  aid  or  corporate  guidance 
The  splitting  up  of  these  societies  in  Great  Britain  makes  the  member- 
ship and  production  curves  of  the  minerals  less  in  parallel  than  is  actually 
the  case. 

Upon  diagram  No.  4  the  enrollment  curve  of  students  in  all  branches 
of  engineering  at  Columbia  is  given,  and  again  shows  marked  accord  with 
the  growth  of  mineral  production.  The  Columbia  School  of  Mines,  the 
oldest  and  most  renowned  in  the  United  States,  is  also  a  part  of  one  of 
the  largest  and  most  important  schools  of  applied  science;  although  it  is 
only  one  of  the  many  in  the  United  States.  The  Bureau  of  Education 

*The  curves  of  growth  of  Great  Britain  societies  have  been  prepared  by  Mr. 
Edgar  P.  Rathbone.  Those  for  the  United  States  are  as  given  by  the  American 
Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  January,  1914.  The  Columbia  School  of  Mines 
curve  has  been  prepared  by  Dean  Goetze. 


MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION  7 

(Department  of  the  Interior)  in  191.1  gave  in  round  figures  the  total  en- 
rollment for  the  technical  students  in  all  schools,  colleges,  and  universities 
of  the  United  States,  as  follows: 

Civil  engineers 9,000 

Electrical  engineers 6,100 

Mechanical  engineers 7,000 

Mining  engineers 2,300 

or  a  total  of  24,000.  Note  how  this  is  in  tune  with  the  membership  of  the 
engineering  societies  of  the  United  States. 

The  number  of  technically  trained  men  required  by  the  mining  industry 
has  been  most  ably  and  interestingly  dealt  with  by  Professor  Christy  of  the 
University  of  California  in  1893,  and  President  McNair  of  the  Michigan 
College  of  Mines  in  1905.  They  both  show  that  although  the  number  re- 
quired was  not  then  large  in  the  aggregate,  it  was  in  ratio  to  the  produc- 
tion arid  number  of  men  engaged  in  mining. 

Upon  diagram  No.  2,  it  will  be  noted  that  the  growth  of  railway  mileage 
is  rather  in  parallelism  with  the  growth  of  mineral  products  than  that  of 
the  population  of  the  United  States.  The  relation  of  railroad  transporta- 
tion to  mining  is  most  marked  and  important,  and  was  the  subject  of  an 
able  address  given  by  Dr.  Douglas  to  the  graduating  class  of  your  School 
of  Applied  Science  in  1906.  He  then  showed  that  the  production  of  iron 
and  the  building  of  railroads  had  kept  step  in  the  United  States  since 
1840.  He  also  showed  by  tabular  statements  that  from  45  to  58%  of  the 
traffic  movement  of  the  United  States  was  in  connection  with  products  of 
mines.  Later  statistics  only  confirm  this  statement,  and  would  indicate  an 
even  higher  proportion. 

The  object  of  the  diagrams  has  been  to  place  before  you  facts  in  general 
perspective,  rather  than  accurate  detail,  and  by  using  tracings  so  that  the 
diagrams  can  be  placed  one  above  the  other,  the  accord  of  all  the  growths 
shown  can  be  better  appreciated  than  by  words.  It  is  certainly  interesting 
to  see  the  great  part  that  is  being  played  by  mineral  products  in  the  affairs 
of  the  world. 

In  a  broad  way,  let  us  now  try  and  read  some  of  the  meanings  and  lessons 
that  the  foregoing  diagrams,  statistics,  and  statements  seem  to  give  us.  It 
would  appear  that  mining  and  metallurgy,  after  dwelling  in  a  lowland  of 
drowsy  accomplishment  for  centuries,  then  pioneered  and  stimulated  by 
great  gold  discoveries,  sprang  into  gigantic  activity,  and  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  all  within  the  life  of  this  School  of  Mines. 

This  has  been  brought  about  by  the  growth  of  knowledge  through  science, 
invention,  and  engineering,  which  first  made  clear  the  possibility,  and 
finally  the  way,  of  the  manufacture  of  power  on  a  scale  never  dreamt  of  be- 
fore, and  thus  giving  man  an  almost  Aladdin's  power  of  summoning  and 
enchaining  a  gigantic  retinue  of  obedient  impersonal  servitors. 

All  branches  of  engineering  have  eagerly  and  ably  contributed  to  this  ac- 
complishment, but  they  could  never  even  have  started  without  the  miner. 


8  MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

Do  not  the  force  currents  that  have  been  generated  from  mining  products, 
and  controlled  and  set  in  circulation  by  engineering  skill,  supplement  or  sup- 
plant manual  work  and  thus  constitute  the  basic  cause  of  the  growth  and 
might  of  modern  wealth?  Look  at  the  indicator  gauge  of  bank  deposits, 
and  thus  bank  circulation ! 

In  contemplating  this  flow  of  force,  are  we  not  impressed  with  the  analogy 
between  the  circulation  of  blood  in  our  bodies,  and  the  wealth  currents  in 
trade?  Does  not  a  sudden  halt  and  stoppage  mean  paralysis  or  death  in 
either  case,  for  circulation  is  vital  to  trade  as  to  life  ? 

The  arteries  of  commerce  require  veins  for  distribution  and  return  as 
does  the  body.  All  parts  of  the  body,  even  the  brain,  have  limited  absorbing 
power  and  must  return  the  remainder  to  the  moving  blood  currents,  and 
thus  the  richest  of  men  have  but  small  individual  wealth-absorbing  power 
and  must  let  the  rest  of  the  current  go  through  them.  They  can  be  a  great 
artery  of  flow,  but  not  a  terminal  reservoir. 

It  is  quite  natural  that  bewilderment  and  unrest  should  follow  the  sudden 
might  of  this  ever-growing  flood  of  power  summoned  from  the  mineral  king- 
dom— more  time,  more  patience,  and  more  industry  are  required  to  under- 
stand and  govern  it  aright.  Force  uncontrolled  or  misunderstood  is  danger- 
ous in  proportion  to  its  magnitude,  but  as  it  is  harnessed  and  controlled  by 
a  serene  and  equitable  understanding,  so  must  it  benefit  and  redound  to  the 
service  and  advancement  of  man. 

To  obtain  the  great  production  of  minerals  for  the  manufacture  of  force, 
and  then  its  various  useful  transformations,  has  required  not  only  the 
creation  of  huge  and  complex  manufacturing  tools,  but  also  new  great 
implements  of  finance,  and  thus  the  growth  of  the  limited  liability  corpora- 
tion and  stock  exchange  has  been  in  sympathy  with  the  mineral  production. 

The  precipitous  curves  in  the  diagrams  all  show  that  there  must  have  been 
all  manner  and  forms  of  human  stimulus  to  have  made  the  showings  pos- 
sible. 

Over-eagerness  to  drink  of  the  force  fountains  produced  over-promotion 
and  over-competition,  \vhich  demanded  in  turn  remorseless  skimming  of 
cream  resources  without  any  reckoning  of  the  future,  as  is  shown  by  the 
wasteful  methods  of  mining  and  extravagant  use  of  fuels,  and  the  inten- 
sive, remorseless  use  of  labor,  both  of  hand  and  brain. 

To  obtain  the  effective  dollar,  for  legitimate  enterprise,  by  means  of  the 
stock  exchange,  many  are  circulated  in  demoralizing  gambling. 

The  eapriciousness  of  ore  deposits  is  an  acknowledged  fact  and  problem 
in  mining,  and  the  wise  balancing  and  weighing  of  probabilities  and  pos- 
sibilities, so  as  to  make  good  guesses,  based  on  slender  foundations,  is  the 
great  and  final  accomplishment  of  the  successful  mining  engineer. 

Mining  is  not  an  unreasonably  hazardous  business  if  its  eapriciousness 
is  recognized  and  if  initial  payments  for  unproved  chances  are  not  made 
too  great,  and  expenditures  for  equipment  are  not  undertaken  upon  in- 
sufficient foundations,  and  risks  are  averaged  by  spreading  them. 

Advantage  has  been  taken  by  promoters  and  manipulators  of  the  legiti- 


MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

mate  uncertainties  of  mining,  to  excuse  the  wildest  mining  ventures  and 
the  exploitation  of  stock  certificates,  rather  than  ore  deposits.  This  has 
handicapped  legitimate  mining  by  making  it  difficult  to  obtain  promising 
initial  prospects  at  sane  prices  for  purposes  of  honest  test.  It  also  tends 
to  belittle  the  good  name  of  a  basic  industry  upon  which  modern  civilization 
rests. 

The  fallacy  of  the  belief  that  mining  can  only  thrive  through  the  stock 
exchange  is  known  to  those  who  have  been  connected  with  big  mining  af- 
fairs and  have  seen  that  successful  enterprises  have  been  initiated  and 
carried  through  dark  days  of  slow  development  and  depression,  by  people 
who  have  knowledge,  courage,  and  money  to  back  their  convictions.  The 
stock  exchange  shows  its  greatest  activity  when  least  needed,  that  is,  in 
inflating  success  and  exaggerating  failure. 

The  transactions  of  the  mining  and  other  engineering  societies,  as  well 
as  the  honest  and  high-class  publications  of  the  leading  technical  press, 
are  giving  such  educational  light  that  it  is  hoped  and  believed  that  min- 
ing exploitation  by  the  stock  exchange  is  very  much  on  the  wane. 

To  be  fair  to  the  stock  exchange,  it  has  often  caused  successful  mines  to  be 
developed,  which  otherwise  would  not  be  worked  at  this  time,  but  the  pro- 
fession with  which  I  am  dealing  has  not  the  stock  exchange  as  its  guiding 
star.  It  must  nevertheless  be  acknowledged  and  understood  that  mining  is 
not  undertaken  for  making  statistical  showings,  or  for  philanthropic  pur- 
poses. Its  fundamental  idea  is  to  make  money  for  those  who  undertake  it, 
and  the  success  of  the  mining  administrator  or  engineer  is  largely  gauged 
by  the  return  of  profits  he  can  show. 

After  the  protection  of  the  lives  of  his  workmen,  rightly  the  engineer's 
first  duty  is  loyalty  to  the  owners  of  the  enterprise  that  employs  him. 

The  owners,  who  put  up  only  their  own  money,  have  a  right  to  decide  to 
what  extent  they  make  their  business  and  engineering  information  public. 
But,  when  a  limited  liability  corporation  is  formed,  the  case  is  entirely  dif- 
ferent, for  this  means  the  partnership  becomes  unlimited,  and,  as  all  part- 
ners have  right  to  knowledge,  the  engineer's  loyalty  to  his  owners  changes 
from  the  few  to  the  many. 

In  writing  reports  for  private  owners,  the  engineer  should  protect  him- 
self and  the  public  by  placing  before  himself,  and  then  on  record,  all  facts 
obtainable  in  any  way  bearing  on  the  problem,  and  then,  and  only  then, 
write  his  conclusions,  submitting  the  report  to  his  principals  upon  condi- 
tion that,  if  made  public,  it  will  be  given  in  its  entirety,  or  as  edited  by 
himself.  The  essence  of  engineering  ethics  is  to  obtain  full  truth,  first 
for  himself,  then  to  give  it  in  full  to  his  employer.  If  this  is  done  with 
industry  and  frankness,  all  the  other  ethical  rules  with  which  our  engineer- 
ing associations  are  struggling,  will  be  but  corollaries. 

The  secrets  of  mining  should  be  more  and  more  confined  to  those  given 
by  nature.  Mining  titles  and  laws  should  be  established  with  more  cer- 
tainty, so  the  most  generous  and  honest  are  not  handicapped  or  preyed 
upon,  by  the  most  shady  and  dishonest. 


10  MINING    AS   A   PROFESSION 

The  subject  of  the  relationship  and  preparation  of  students  for  the  min- 
ing industry  has  been  a  fruitful  theme  of  papers  in  transactions,  and 
addresses  to  colleges  and  universities,  and  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to 
emphasize  its  importance. 

The  interlocking  and  parallelism  of  the  educational  needs  of  different 
branches  of  the  engineering  profession  were  clearly  recognized  and  set 
forth  by  Professor  Monroe  ten  years  ago,  who,  at  the  same  time,  pointed 
out  the  necessity  of  a  greater  diversity  of  knowledge  for  the  mining  student 
than  for  any  other  branch  of  engineering.  The  decision  of  this  University 
to  demand  from  all  applicants  for  engineering  degrees  a  sound  foundation 
of  general  culture  before  specializing,  and  equal  to  that  preliminarily  re- 
quired in  any  other  profession,  is  only  in  keeping  with  what  I  have 
endeavored  to  show  to  be  the  great  responsibilities  and  powers,  which  have 
of  late  years  been  demanded  of  mining  and  other  engineers. 

It  is  obvious  that  in  the  early  days  of  big  mining  the  accomplishment  and 
numbers  of  technically  trained  men  did  not  equal  or  fit  the  demand,  and 
that  many  forceful,  talented,  energetic  men  must  have  risen  from  the 
ranks  to  leadership.  They  were  the  first  in  the  saddle,  and,  naturally,  did 
not  always  see  the  full  necessities  of  training,  without  which  they  them- 
selves had  succeeded.  But  assuming  equal  individual  ability,  the  wasteful- 
ness of  acquiring  knowledge  by  only  personal  experience,  and  not  by 
making  use  of  the  stored  experience  of  others,  must  tell  against  the  merely 
practically  trained  man. 

The  great  self-made  mining  men  of  the  past  must  be  recognized  and 
reverenced,  both  in  the  technical  societies  and  schools,  for  they  have  been 
the  pioneers  and  makers  of  history.  Though  in  time  a  degree  from  an 
engineering  school  may,  and  should  be,  regarded  as  a  first  necessity,  the 
demand  for  it  should  not  be  made  retroactive. 

The  student  of  the  future  should  only  regard  his  degree  as  the  trainer's 
certificate  of  efficiency  and  soundness,  for  a  race  and  struggle,  still  ahead 
of  him.  Practice,  as  well  as  theory,  is  essential.  The  danger  of  only 
theory  in  formative  years,  even  for  the  diligent  student,  is  that  the  slowness 
of  results  and  drudgery  of  practice  become  distasteful,  and  commercial 
success  not  so  palatable  or  satisfying  as  to  those  who  work  their  way  up 
from  the  ranks. 

Your  school  of  summer  practical  training,  giving  students  a  preliminary 
contact  with  actual  work,  is  excellent  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  its  success  has 
been  shown  by  how  greatly  it  has  been  copied.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  even 
greater  demand  will  be  made  by  the  schools  for  early  practical  experience, 
and  to  be  rewarded  by  a  post-graduate  degree.  Students  who  have  worked 
for  wages  and  have  obtained  approbation  of  employers,  and  have  been 
thrown  into  intimate  contact  at  the  formative  time  of  life  with  the  ordinary 
wage  earner,  on  equal  terms,  have  obtained  an  experience  most  desirable 
and  most  necessary  for  the  engineer. 

In  these  days  of  impersonal  corporation  ownership,  the  closest  and  most 
intelligent  link  between  capital  and  labor  is  that  of  the  engineer.  To  be 


MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION  11 

of  the  greatest  use  he  should  know  the  life,  ambitions,  and  viewpoints  of 
each,  and  bring  wisdom  and  sympathy  to  both  sides,  in  the  bitter  and 
dangerous  struggle  that  is  now  going  on  between  those,  so  intimately  bound 
and  tied  together,  that  the  paralysis  or  death  of  one,  means  the  same  for 
the  other.  Such  experience  can  only  be  advantageously  obtained  for  the 
engineer,  before  he  has  assumed  responsibility  of  leadership  in  dealing  with 
labor. 

It  is  the  right  labor  viewpoint  and  basic  principles  of  business  economy 
that  should  be  more  and  more  given  to  mining  and  other  engineering 
students. 

Engineering  training  should  not  simply  be  limited  to  those  certain 
to  practice  it — it  should  be  used  and  looked  upon  as  a  gateway  to  leader- 
ship in  all  great  business  enterprises,  for  it  is  fundamental  in  its  training, 
and  teaches  the  necessity  for  accuracy,  the  search  of  truth,  probing  error, 
and  the  frank  acknowledgment  of  limitations. 

The  gigantic  forces  set  so  recently  in  circulation  by  the  miner  and  en- 
gineer must  not  only  be  better  understood  by  the  professional  man,  but 
also  by  all  leaders  of  affairs.  What  is  the  use  of  a  perfect  engineering 
report,  if  but  hazily  and  imperfectly  understood  by  those  who  have  to 
use  it  ?  As  to  general  culture,  do  the  old  dumb-bell  mental  drills  of  the  past, 
which  might  be  well  adapted  for  a  different  set  of  knowledge  and  economic 
conditions,  hold  good  when  the  new  economic  conditions  have  revolutionized 
sciences,  wealth,  and  opportunities  of  education? 

Is  the  average  attitude  of  the  students  in  our  great  centres  of  learning, 
who  so  often  place  athletics  and  college  social  success  above  scholarship, 
indicative  of  the  satisfying  character  of  knowledge  supplied  1 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  there  been  more  necessity  for 
the  clearness  of  vision  and  honesty  of  thought  than  now,  when  great  over- 
whelming material  force  is  flooding  the  world.  False  hopes,  false  ideals, 
false  education,  and  revolutionary  socialism,  which  only  sees  the  wrongs 
and  misery  of  the  present,  and  the  cure  by  annihilation  of  all  good  with 
evil,  must  be  met  by  sane  and  strong  training  of  future  leaders,  and  from 
what  schools  can  we  hope  to  better  obtain  help  than  those  of  engineering? 

In  conclusion,  it  will  be  necessary  to  consider  more  closely  mining  as  a 
profession,  in  which,  of  course,  is  included  the  early  stages  of  metallurgy. 
The  mining  engineer  must  have  some  sound  general  knowledge  of  all 
other  branches  of  engineering  inasmuch  as  in  the  equipment  and  running 
of  great  mines  and  metallurgical  plants  he  must  make  use  of  the  training 
of  engineers  in  almost  all  the  other  branches,  and  to  obtain  from  them  their 
best  and  hold  their  respect,  it  is  necessary  for  him  at  least  to  appreciate  the 
foundations  of  their  specialties,  intelligently  to  confer  with  them,  and  de- 
cide upon  merits,  rather  than  dicta. 

In  addition,  he  must  have  special  knowledge  and  training  in  all  per- 
taining to  the  discovery,  working,  and  valuation  of  ore  deposits.  He  must 
have  also  sound  business  experience  and  judgment  to  gauge  the  payability 
of  new  ventures,  and  this  in  turn  requires  that  he  should  have  had,  in  some 


12  MINING   AS   A   PROFESSION 

period  of  his  career,  a  successful  experience  in  management,  requiring  a 
knowledge  of  accounts  and  faculty  of  handling  men.  In  distant  lands  he 
must  have  general  information  of  many  kinds,  and  linguistic  attainment. 

The  legitimate  uncertainties  of  mining  throw  peculiar  temptations  in 
his  path,  as  these  can  be  twisted  to  excuse  failures  of  indolence  and  unfit- 
ness,  and  also  be  used  as  narcotics  to  conscience  when  temptation  to  dis- 
honesty presents  itself.  His  work  is  often  far  afield  from  the  observance 
and  guidance  of  owners  or  directors,  and  his  work  is  not  of  a  character 
that  erects  lasting  monuments  or  stimulates  either  admiration  or  criticism. 
Thus  character,  industry,  and  tact  are  even  greater  requisites  for  true 
success  than  brilliancy  of  intellect. 

Eight  character  building,  begun  in  such  an  institution  as  this,  is  the 
greatest  benefit  it  can  confer.  This  idea  has  been  most  fittingly  expressed 
by  one  of  its  most  beloved  character  builders,  Professor  Kemp,  in  Uni- 
versity quarterly,  December  1913.5 

It  must  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  this  University  and  other  kindred 
training  schools  for  the  engineer,  to  see  how  the  great  majority  of  the 
students  have  responded  to  their  character  builders,  inasmuch  as  the 
records  of  this,  and  other  high-class  institutions,  show  that  very  very  few 
of  their  graduates  have  succumbed  to  gross  financial  temptation. 

Mining  brings  in  touch  engineers  of  different  lands  with  different  train- 
ing, in  such  a  way  that  general  recognition  and  good  fellowship  are  un- 
stintingly  extended  (as  the  speaker  must  gratefully  acknowledge)  irre- 
spective of  nationality.  Mining  requires  varied  knowledge  and  gives  scope 
for  ability  and  character,  and  is  a  profession  befitting  the  true  gentleman 
as  well  as  the  adventurous  strong  man.  It  affords  absorbing  and  interesting 
work,  and,  being  basic  and  productive,  extends  opportunity  for  clean 
money  prizes. 

Each  branch  of  engineering  is  based  upon  metallic  foundations ;  each  is 
dependent  upon  the  other,  and  none  could  have  reached  its  present  magni- 
tude without  the  others,  but  the  miner  gives  to  all  the  other  branches  the 
materials  that  knit  them  together,  in  common  bond  of  usefulness  making 
them  effective  in  the  art  of  "Directing  the  great  sources  of  power  in 
nature  for  the  use  and  convenience  of  man.'* 

6"Many,  as  I  have  mentioned,  follow  courses  of  study  in  the  natural  sciences 
from  interest  in  the  subjects,  but  the  student  can  not  do  so  without  reflex  influence 
upon  himself.  He  is,  for  example,  obliged  by  the  very  nature  of  the  pursuit  to  be 
accurate,  precise,  and  orderly  in  thinking.  False  observations,  careless  records,  or 
confusion  of  thought  bring  no  results.  Clearness  and  remorseless  regard  for  truth 
must  be  all  absorbing.  There  is  and  can  be  no  attempt  to  make  the  worse  appear 
the  better  reason;  there  is  no  complexity  of  motive;  but  simple  and  exact  habits 
of  mind  must  be  cultivated.  Results  are  to  be  reported  to  others  and  are  certain 
to  be  checked  in  the  future.  There  is,  however,  the  constant  pressure  to  have 
them  right.  An  ideal  is  held  before  a  man,  which  is  not  without  its  ethical 
response.  While  we  can  not  say  that  is  always  manifested  in  the  lives  of  scien- 
tific men,  with  all  the  force  that  we  might  wish,  nor  that  every  one  of  them  is 
as  truthful,  direct,  or  accurate  as  he  should  be,  yet,  the  influences  of  his  pursuits 
are  strong  even  if  not  altogether  transforming." 


VALUE  Of  OMf  UNIT   Of  DJAGKAM 
Cold--  20  M, II ion  dollars 
Copper  ~  fOO  MtJlion  pounds 
fron  =  •*  M>'l/ion  Jong  t  ' 


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THE  MINER  AS  A  PIONEER  OF  CIVILIZATION 


By  T.   A.   RICKAR& 

It  is  a  common  saying  that  agriculture  and  mining  are  the  two  basic 
industries.  When  man  rose  above  the  brutish  individualism  of  his 
primordial  state  and  began  to  develop  the  social  instinct,  he  turned  to  the 
soil,  in  order  to  win  food  for  his  family.  He  paused  in  his  migration ;  the 
soil  held  him ;  it  gave  root  to  his  rudimentary  community ;  it  gave  him  the 
chance  to  enlarge  his  energies.  His  tracks  became  highways;  his  rivers, 
avenues  of  trade ;  and  as  his  traffic  expanded,  so  his  imagination  widened, 
until,  out  of  the  crudities  of  communal  development  grew  the  complexities 
of  civilization. 

But  the  nomadic  habit  lingered;  the  spirit  of  the  hunter  survived  in 
man ;  a  wanderer  and  a  wonclerer  he  stood  beneath  the  starry  dome  or  the 
forest  arch  not  knowing  whether  he  were  a  guest  or  a  captive  in  the 
domain  of  Nature.  The  hills  beckoned ;  the  seas  called ;  the  more  venture- 
some left  the  tents  of  the  tribe  in  search  of  material  wherewith  to  fashion 
their  implements.  They  sought  iron  for 'Weapons,  copper  fortools,  gold 
for  Ornament,  and  found  them  in  various  guise  in  the  earth  under  their 
feet.  They  became  miners.  To  those  who  delved  successfully  came  power. 
Throughout  the  ages  the  more  energetic  and  adventurous  broke  from  the 
plough  and  forsook  the  cattle  in  order  to  explore  and  to  exploit.  They 
furnished  the  metals  from  which  the  artificers  fashioned  engines  of  power 
and  machines  of  intelligence.  They  won  the  materials  for  a  social  structure 
that,  based  on  stone  and  built  in  iron  and  copper,  soared  in  many-storied 
tracery  of  steel  to  towers  radiant  with  light  and  vibrant  to  the  sky — towers 
so  far  above  the  common  ground  that  man  almost  forgot  his  lowly  origin 
and  claimed  kinship  with  the  stars. 

Civilization  was  developed  on  a  metallic  basis,  not  as  regards  money, 
for  credit  is  the  expression  of  an  advanced  state  of  society,  but  as  regards 
implements  and  instruments,  machinery  and  transport,  facilities  of  living 
and  of  communication,  all  of  which  required  the  use  of  metals.  The  need 
of  them  and  the  consequent  market  for  them  induced  enterprising  men  to 
probe  the  hills  and  scour  the  deserts  in  search  of  the  mineral  deposits  that 
are  distributed  with  such  perplexing  irregularity  in  the  outer  crust  of  the 
earth.  These  deposits  were  not  to  be  found  near  the  smiling  cornfield  or 
the  gentle  hillslope  but  in  regions  where  geologic  unrest  had  produced 
inequalities  of  contour  and  ruggedness  of  aspect,  where  the  surface  was 
bare  of  soil  and  the  mountains  exposed  their  heart  of  rock.  The  miner,' 
therefore,  left  the  sheltered  valley  and  plunged  into  the  outer  wilderness. 
And  in  his  wanderings,  he  found  not  only  the  metallic  ore  that  was  the 


14  THE    MINER    AS   A    PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION 

immediate  object  of  his  quest ;  he  also  discovered  new  tracts  of  agricultural 
land,  and  new  dwelling  places  for  his  tribe.  Returning  home,  he  told 
the  farmers  and  shepherds  that  fertile  fields  and  lusher  meadows  were 
awaiting  them  across  the  range.  They  migrated  thither,  while  he  again 
adventured  afar  across  the  world,  ever  pioneering  the  advance. 

This  bare  outline  of  a  familiar  story  has  already  been  punctuated  by 
you  with  memories  of  the  romance  that  has  marked  your  own  national 
expansion.  The  story  of  mineral  exploration  and  racial  migration  is 
peculiarly  the  heritage  of  our  people,  the  Anglo-Celts.  It  is  the  motif  that 
runs  through  the  drama  of  English  and  American  history,  more  particular- 
ly daring  the  last  hundred  years.  Even  in  its  barest  outline  it  serves  to 
suggest  that  the  miner  is  the  pioneer  of  industry  and  the  herald  of  empire. 

The  first  social  organizations  around  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
sent  their  prospectors  to  the  hinterlands  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa. 
The  gold  of  Ophir,  the  copper  of  Sinai,  the  silver  of  Laurium  were  part 
of  the  web  and  woof  of  those  early  civilizations.  The  mines  of  Iberia  gave 
Hannibal  the  sinews  of  war  against  Rome,  and  the  gold  of  Dacia 
strengthened  the  resources  of  Rome  under  Trajan.  But  the  greatest 
adventure  was  that  of  the  Phenicians  who  passed  through  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  into  the  western  ocean  in  order  to  reach  the  far  Cassiterides,  the 
tin  islands  that  in  turn  were  to  produce  those  Cornishmen  to  whom  this 
earth  is  one  big  mine.  After  Carthage  and  Rome,  in  turn,  had  been  over- 
thrown, the  mining  industries  of  the  known  world  wrere  disorganized. 
Desultory  operations  persisted  in  Hungary,  Spain,  and  Saxony,  but  the 
Middle  Ages  to  the  miner  were  as  dark  below  ground  as  above.  Even  the 
discovery  of  America,  which  marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  world  move- 
ment, was  not  connected  with  a  real  advance  in  mineral  exploitation,  al- 
though associated  with  the  gaining  of  gold  and  silver.  It  is  true,  the  wave 
of  Spanish  conquest  broke  over  the  American  continent,  penetrating  the 
treasure-vaults  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  JBut  theSpaniard  devastated,  he  did 
not  develop.  He  gathered  the  harvest  that  the  patient  Indian  had  sown 
by  the  laborious  toil  of  centuries.  Cortez  and  Pizarro  were  filibusters,  not 
explorers;  they  were  pirates,  not  miners.  The  conquistadores  were  no 
pioneers  of  industry ;  behind  them  arose  the  smoke  of  ruin  and  the  dust  of 
destruction.  Even  the  great  sea-captains  of  Elizabeth  were  but  the  sequel 
to  an,  epoch  of  spoliation.  After  them,  and  in  their  wake  across  the  sea, 
came  the  men  who  from  Cornwall  and  Devon,  from  Saxony  and  the  liar/, 
brought  the  technique  of  mining  to  the  new  world,  applying  it  peacefully 
to  the  mineral  development  of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chile,  all  along  the 
regions  previously  ravaged  by  European  freebooters. 

But  the  great  era  of  mineral  exploration  came  with  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  Australia  and  California.  It  was  the  prelude  to  a  worldwide  migration, 
an  enormous  expansion  of  trade,  a  tremendous  advance  in  the  arts  of  life, 
and  the  spread  of  industry  to  the  waste  places  of  the  earth. 

The  color  of  energy  began  to  tint  the  blank  spaces  on  the  map.  The 
western  half  of  the  North  American  continent,  all  of  Australia,  the  south- 


THE   MINER   AS   A   PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION  15 

ern  half  of  Africa,  the  northern  half  of  Asia,  were  invaded,  penetrated, 
and  explored  by  those  in  search  of  gold,  or  other  metals,  and  as  each  suc- 
cessive mineral  discovery  was  made  by  the  miner  he  called  upon  his  fellows 
to  come  and  take  a  hand  in  the  good  work.  He  was  the  scout  far  aheadj>f 
an  army  ofjlej^nmejat.  Trade  follows  the"  flag,  it  is  true,  ImiTtKe  flag 
follows  the  pick.  Let  us  recall  the  story  of  that  odyssey,  and  see  for  our- 
selves what  human  progress  owes  to  its  adventurous  forerunners. 

First  we  turn  to  the  American  argonauts,  the  men  who  sought  the  Golden 
Fleece  in  California.  Even  the  dates  in  this  story  are  fragrant  with 
romance,  for  gold  was  discovered  by  James  W.  Marshall  on  January  24, 
1848,  and  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  which  ended  the  first  Mexican 
war,  was  signed  on  February  2.  In  other  words,  California  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States  9  days  after  the  great  discovery,  which,  at  that  time, 
was  not  known  to  either  government,  fortunately  for  both  of  them,  and  for 
many  others.  Marshall  had  built  a  saw-mill  for  John  A.  Sutter  at  Coloma 
on  the  south  fork  of  the  American  river,  only  35  miles  northeast  of 
Sacramento.  When  the  mill  was  ready  to  start,  Marshall  saw  that  the  tail- 
race,  or  ditch  leading  the  water  from  the  wheel,  was  not  deep  enough.  He 
proceeded  to  deepen  it  by  opening  the  floodgates  to  full  capacity,  so  that 
th  swift  current  would  scour  the  bottom.  The  water  was  allowed  to  run 
all  night.  In  the  morning  Marshall  noted  the  effect,  and  while  doing  so 
he  saw  several  yellow  nuggets.  He  hammered  one  of  them,  and  decided 
that  it  was  metal ;  he  bit  it  and  found  that  it  was  soft ;  he  boiled  some  of 
them  in  a  kettle  and  proved  them  insoluble  in  water.  Thereupon  he  went 
to  Helvetia  or  Sutter 's  Fort,  to  tell  his  patron  that  he  had  found  gold. 
Sutter  tested  the  metal  with  nitric  acid,  some  of  which  he  found  among 
his  apothecary  stores;  he  read  the  article  on  gold  in  his  copy  of  the 
Encyclopedia  Americana;  he  weighed  the  nuggets  and  compared  them 
with  coins;  whereupon  he  also  pronounced  it  gold. 

That  marked  the  beginning  of  the  Golden  Age  in  the  foothills  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  Others  found  gold  in  near-by  streams ;  the  news  traveled 
to  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  thence  to  Europe.  An  excited  migration 
began  across  the  plains,  over  the  Panama  isthmus,  around  Cape  Horn.  The 
young,  energetic,  and  adventurous  hurried  to  the  Eldorado  that  promised 
to  fulfil  the  dreams  of  Raleigh's  day.  In  1851  California  yielded  $81,- 
294,700  in  gold.  It  was  no  idle  imagining,  but  an  astounding  fact.  Nor 
does  the  output  of  precious  metal  measure  the  full  consequence  of  the 
event.  Cities  were  born,  new  avenues  of  commerce  were  created,  the  valleys 
of  the  Sacramento  and  the  San  Joaquin  became  the  granaries  of  prosper- 
ous communities,  the  unknown  territory  in  the  middle  of  the  continent 
was  traversed  and  explored,  the  Great  West  leapt  into  vigorous  life  and 
became  an  integral  part  of  the  American  domain.  Moreover,  among  those 
enriched  by  the  mines  were  men  of  initiative  and  imagination ;  like  Balboa 
they  stood  on  a  peak  in  Darieii;  they  saw  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic  as 
surely  as  he  did,  and  to  more  purpose;  they  built  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road and  tied  California  to  the  Union  with  links  of  steel. 


16  THE   MINER   AS   A   PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION 

You  may  say  that  most  of  these  adventurers  were  not  miners.  I  demur. 
What  is  a  miner?  He  is  the  man  who  does  the  work  of  a  miner,  and  that 
is,  to  extract  ore  from  the  ground.  Most  of  the  young  and  lusty  men  that 
rushed  to  California  had  never  seen  a  mine,  but  that  does  not  matter! 
They  went  to  do  the  work  of  mining,  and  with  the  washing  of  the  first 
panful  of  gold-bearing  gravel  they  won  the  badge  of  Agricola.  JThey  had 
the  machinery  most  used  in  mining^)mman  muscle;  they  had  the  science 
most  approved  in  that  ancient  art /T&jganized  common  sense;  they  achieved 
the  fundamental  purpose  of  miniii^l™  exploit  mineral  profitably.  They 
came,  they  worked,  they  conquered  ;*v-ahd  from  their  labors  has  arisen  a 
great  and  glorious  commonwealth. 

Among  those  that  went  to  California  was  E.  H.  Hargraves,  an  Austral- 
ian, who  was  led  by  the  analogy  of  geologic  conditions  to  suspect  the  occur- 
rence of  gold  in  his  own  country,  New  South  Wales.  Returning  thither, 
he  was  able  on  April  3,  J-85L  to  inform  the  Colonial  Secretary  that  gold 
existed  at  Lewis  Ponds  anoother  localities.  He  furnished  ample  proof 
of  his  statement,  and  was  suitably  rewarded.  Hargraves  was  a  man  of 
exceptional  intelligence,  and  the  discovery  that  he  made  was  among  the 
least  fortuitous  of  those  that  have  changed  history.  It  led  immediately 
to  search  for  gold  elsewhere  in  the  Australian  colonies,  then  consisting  of 
a  few  small  and  scattered  settlements  along  the  southeastern  coast.  In 
I  August  of  the  same  year  a  discovery  at  Buninyong,  near  Ballarat,  started 
j  the  first  big  rush  to  the  Victorian  goldfields.  Sailors  left  their  ships  at 
anchor  in  Port  Philip  bay;  clerks  jumped  off  their  stools  to  rush  to  the 
diggings;  every  able-bodied  man  shouldered  his  blanket  and  trudged 
through  the  bush  to  engage  in  the  treasure  hunt.  After  all  the  local  popu- 
lation had  stampeded,  the  news  reached  Europe  and  incited  another 
economic  Hegira.  The  gold  seekers  came  in  ship-loads  and  they  expected  to 
find  gold  in  pailfuls ;  indeed,  many  of  them  were  simple  enough  to  believe 
that  gold  in  quartz  meant  gold  in  double  pints.  They  had  much  to  learn, 
and  most  of  them  learned  it  without  delay  from  the  severest  of  all  teachers, 
Der  Herr  Oberbergrat  Professor  Experience.  In  the  year  1853  Victoria 
yielded  $54,882,000  in  gold. 

From  the  mining-camps  eager  explorers  plunged  into  the  bush,  or 
eucalyptus  forest,  which,  like  a  sea  of  perennial  foliage,  then  covered  the 
habitable  portions  of  the  Australian  continent.  Outside  them  they  found 
the  grassy  uplands  on  which  the  Australian  was  to  grow  a  later  golden 
fleece,  and  beyond  these  pastoral  tracts  they  invaded  the  never-never  land 
in  which  the  rivers  lose  their  way.  The  alluvial  mining  for  gold  was  the 
beginning  of  a  new  era,  it  led  to  the  discoveries  of  tin  in  Tasmania,  of 
golden  ironstone  at  Mount  Morgan,  of  silver-lead  ore  at  Broken  Hill;  it 
started  a  widespread  mineral  industry  on  the  island  continent;  with  it 
came  a  rapid  growth  of  population  of  a  kind  superior  to  that  of  the  first 
settlements;  agriculture  waited  on  mining,  the  need  for  food-stuffs  stimu- 
lated husbandry,  towns  arose  as  if  by  magic,  hastily  constructed  camps  be- 
came permanent  communities,  a  new  civilization  swept  the  aborigines  into 


THE    MINER    AS    A   PIONEER    OF    CIVILIZATION  17 

the  interior,  razed  the  primeval  forest,  furrowed  the  soil,  cleaved  the 
quarry,  built  docks,  warehouses,  and  dwellings.  Australia  was  born  again. 
Captain  Cook  sailed  along  the  coast  and  placed  Australia  on  a  naval  chart ; 
Hargraves  placed  her  on  the  map  of  the  world. 

Among  the  more  remarkable  explorations  of  a  later  day  I  may  instance 
Western  Australia.  The  interior  of  that  state  is  an  arid  plateau;  it  is 
the  oldest  land  surface  in  the  globe,  and  represents  the  basal  wreck  of  a 
larger  continent.  It  had  been  crossed  by  several  parties  of  explorers,  in 
the  hope  of  finding  some  oasis  in  the  desert  or  some  outlet  of  the  rivers  that 
fail  to  reach  the  sea.  In  1887  a  discovery  of  gold  was  made  by  Anstey  at 
Yilgarn.  ,  This  attracted  a  few  prospectors,  who  scattered  farther  inland. 
In  October  1892  Bayley  and  Ford  found  a  rich  outcrop  500  miles  from 
the  coast,  at  Coolgardie.  The  outcrop  was  50  feet  long,  6  feet  wide,  and 
5  feet  high,  spangled  with  coarse  gold.  In  the  March  following  they  sold 
their  claim  for  £6000,  and  a  sixth  interest.  During  the  ensuing  year  the 
new  owners  extracted  25,872  oz.  of  gold  from  48  tons  of  ore,  which,  there- 
fore, averaged  539  oz.  per  ton.  That  started  the  'boom'. 

Then  was  seen  a  strange  spectacle.  The  sandy  plain  was  covered  with 
a  monotonous  scrub,  sparse  enough  to  be  traversed  easily,  yet  tall  enough 
to  restrict  the  view  and  render  it  easy  for  the  careless  to  lose  their  bear- 
ings. Many  were  'bushed',  and  perished  miserably.  Emerging  from  tracts 
of  stunted  forest,  the  gold-seeker  found  stretches  of  sand  and  spear-grass 
or  else  shallow  depressions  with  clay  bottoms  from  which  the  mirage  lured 
him  to  unslakable  thirst.  Water  was  scarce,  and  uncertain  at  the  best ;  a 
new  peril  faced  the  miner ;  early  in  the  development  of  this  region  he 
learned  to  dig  a  hole  to  salt  water  and  distill  the  brine  in  a  rough  appara- 
tus. But  a  lack  of  the  prime  necessity  of  life  was  a  grim  factor  in  the 
search  for  gold. 

With  the  whisper  of  each  new  discovery,  crowds  of  reckless  men  plunged 
into  the  outer  desolation.  Eager  horsemen  jostled  those  on  awkward 
camels,  whose  swinging  gait  carried  them  past  the  mob  of  diggers  trudg- 
ing wearily  forward.  The  incident  known  as  the  Siberia  rush  is  typical 
of  those  days.  The  name  Siberia  is  a  biting  satire,  for  the  temperature  is 
that  of  Tophet.  A  man  came  into  Coolgardie  one  night  with  a  story  that 
gold  had  been  found  at  a  spot  30  miles  to  the  north.  The  rumor  vibrated 
like  wireless  telegraphy  through  the  tents  and  corrugated  iron  shanties. 
Quietly  one  arose  and  another  followed.  Scores  started  on  horses  or  on 
camels;  hundreds  went  on  foot,  carrying  their  'billies'  and  blankets  on 
their  shoulders  or  trundling  their  packs  in  wheelbarrows.  Some  took  the 
wrong  direction,  and  of  these  many  lost  their  way  and  died  miserably  in 
the  bush.  Four  hundred  reached  the  scene  of  discovery.  The  only  water 
available  was  in  a  'soak'  or  water-hole  seven  miles  distant.  It  was  soon 
drained  dry  by  the  thirsty  diggers.  News  came  to  Coolgardie  that  a  water 
famine  was  imminent.  A  government  official  promptly  dispatched  a  dozen 
camels  bearing  water  to  the  succor  of  the  adventurers.  In  the  meantime, 
most  of  them,  aware  of  the  danger  impending,  had  started  to  reach  the 


18  THE    MINER    AS    A    PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION 

nearest  'condenser'  or  distillation  plant.  Many  died  on  the  way,  and 
many  more  would  have  perished  save  for  the  water  brought  by  the  camel- 
train.  Nevertheless,  in  a  few  days  there  was  another  stampede  in  another 
direction.  Thus  the  gold  field  was  explored.  Sic  Etruria  crevit. 

We  go  next  to  South  Africa.  The  Phenicians  sailed  round  it ;  the 
Portuguese  landed  on  its  shores;  the  Dutch  founded  sundry  little  settle- 
ments; but  it  was  the  finding  of  diamonds  and  gold  that  proved  the  'open 
sesame'  to  the  portals  of  the  Dark  Continent.  Dutch  hunters  had  roved 
northward  from  the  Cape  to  the  Vaal  and  the  Orange;  later  Boers  had 
trekked  beyond  both  of  these  rivers;  but  none  among  them  had  imagined 
that  diamonds  were  mingled  with  the  pretty  garnet,  jasper,  and  agate  peb- 
bles bordering  the  stream.  In  1867,  in  the  hamlet  of  Hopetown,  a  child 
found  a  shining  stone  and  played  with  it.  The  mother  gave  it  to  a  Dutch 
neighbor,  and  he  in  turn  asked  an  Irishman  to  ascertain  what  it  was.  But 
no  one  thought  it  worth  anything  until  a  local  official  noted  that  it  scratched 
glass.  Thereupon  it  was  sent  to  a  mineralogist,  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
label  it  a  diamond.  But  it  led  to  nothing.  No  others  like  it  were  found 
immediately  in  the  same  locality.  In  March  ^869 — two  years  later — a 
Griqua  shepherd  found  a  magnificent  diamond  near  the  Orange  river;  it 
weighed  83%  carats,  and  was  sold  by  him  for  500  sheep,  10  oxen,  and  a 
horse.  Subsequently,  it  brought  £25,000,  and  became  known  as  'the  Star 
of  South  Africa.'  Indeed,  it  was  the  dawn  of  a  new  era.  With  that  dis- 
covery began  a  great  rush  to  the  banks  of  the  Vaal.  At  first  from  the 
neighboring  parts  of  South  Africa  and  then  from  every  quarter  of  the 
globe  there  thronged  a  motley  mob  of  fortune-hunters.  The  majority 
were  men  of  British  descent,  but  even  the  stolid  Boers  were  attracted, 
every  European  nation  was  represented,  and  with  them  all  shades  of  black 
and  brown,  from  the  undiluted  negro  to  the  mezzotint  half-breed.  To  all 
of  these  the  winding  Vaal  was  as  the  valley  of  Sindbad  the  Sailor. 

Meanwhile,  bigger  discoveries  had  been  made  on  the  farmlands  of  the 
Dutch  squatters,  for  it  had  been  proved  that  the  distribution  of  the  gems 
was  not  restricted  to  the  alluvium  of  the  river  flats,  but  extended  through 
the  surface  soil  and  calcareous  cement  into  the  yellow  and  blue  ground  con- 
stituting the  matrix  of  the  diamond.  Of  these  mines,  the  Kimberley  and 
De  Beers  were  the  most  important,  and  on  their  development  hinged  events 
of  historic  significance. 

Among  those  attracted  to  the  diggings  were  two  remarkable  men:  an 
Oxford  student  named  Cecil  John  Rhodes  and  a  young  Hebrew  from  Lon- 
don called  Barnett  Isaacs,  famous  later  as  Barney  Barnato.  One  became 
identified  with  the  De  Beers,  and  the  other  with  the  Kimberley  mine. 
Both  of  them  saw  that  consolidation  was  imperative  if  the  diamond  market 
was  not  to  be  glutted.  They  fought  strenuously  for  control;  and  Rhodes, 
backed  by  Alfred  Beit,  won.  On  July  18,  1889,  the  deal  was  closed  by  a 
cheque  for  £5,338,650,  which  was  the  price  of  the  Kimberley  mine.  Since 
then  the  De  Beers  Consolidated  has  distributed  £30,000,000  in  dividends, 
and  redeemed  debentures  to  the  value  of  £4,822,705. 


THE   MINER   AS   A   PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION  19 

Kimberley  became  a  distributing  point  for  the  adjacent  mineral  region. 
In  1884  the  De  Kaap  goldfield  was  discovered,  whereby  the  districts  of 
Barberton  and  Pilgrim's  Rest  came  into  existence.  In  1885  Laurenz 
Geldenhuis  found  gold  in  shale  on  the  hills  north  of  the  farm  Roodepoort. 
Later  in  the  same  year  Arnold  detected  gold  in  conglomerate  lying  on  the 
farm  Langlaagte.  Both  of  these  finds  were  made  on  the  Witwatersrand  or 
White  Waters  range.  In  December,  Harry  Struben,  who  had  learned  some- 
thing of  mining  at  Kimberley  and  Pilgrim's  Rest,  erected  a  5-stamp  mill, 
and  with  that  the  exploitation  of  the  Rand  may  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced. On  July  18,  1886,  the  goldfield  was  proclaimed.  The  sober  veldt 
sprang  into  busy  life,  and  the  greatest j^oldjmmng  industry  of  the  modern 
world  came  into  being.  In  the  next  25  years  the  Rand  produced  £309,- 
872,000  worth  of  gold,  the  maximum  annual  output  being  in  1912,  when 
it  was  £37,182,795  from  25,486,361  tons  of  ore. 

Rhodes  and  his  partners  participated  in  that  development,  but  the 
diamond  discoveries  had  an  even  wider  influence,  for  they  provided  capital 
and  energy  for  the  extension  of  industry  into  the  very  heart  of  Africa. 
This  brings  us  to  the  story  of  Rhodesia. 

It  was  the  ambition  of  Rhodes,  always  backed  generously  by  Beit,  to 
paint  the  map  red.  He  worked  and  schemed  to  found  a  new  empire  in 
the  northern  hinterland — a  wrord  of  which  Rhodes  was  particularly  fond. 
At  that  time  German  and  Portuguese  colonial  expansion  seemed  likely  to 
absorb  the  vast  interior  made  known  by  the  explorations  of  Livingstone 
and  Stanley.  This  threatened  the  future  of  that  South  African  union 
which  Rhodes  had  in  mind.  By  obtaining  a  concession  from  Lobengula, 
chief  of  the  Matabele,  who  dominated  the  weaker  tribes,  he  got  a  foot-hold. 
With  this,  in  1888,  he  incorporated  the  British  South  Africa  Company, 
under  royal  charter,  and  by  the  purchase  of  concessions  obtained  by  other 
adventurers,  he  consolidated  a  great  tract  of  grazing  and  mining  territory 
under  the  British  flag. 

Two  years  after  the  Chartered  Company  was  formed,  a  military  expedi- 
tion was  sent  by  Rhodes  to  Mashonaland,  the  southern  part  of  this  new 
country,  to  cut  a  road  through  the  bush  for  430  miles,  from  Tuli  to  Salis- 
bury, which  was  founded  on  September  12,  1890.  The  members  of  this 
expedition,  having  accomplished  their  task  peaceably,  disbanded  and  went 
to  work  as  prospectors.  They  uncovered  the  mines  of  the  Gatooma  district. 
In  this  case  the  discovery  was  not  made  in  the  usual  way  by  tracing  the 
gold  of  the  river-bed  or  the  detrital  quartz  on  the  hillside  to  its  source  in 
a  vein  or  lode.  The  prospectors  were  guided  by  ancient  workings,  made 
by  a  forgotten  people,  probably  of  Arabian  origin.  And  though  the  first 
operations  were  not  successful,  owing  to  lack  of  transport  and  supplies, 
they  laid  the  foundation  of  a  prosperous  business.  The  men  who  did  this 
work  were  preeminently  the  pioneers  of  industry;  they  were  actually  en- 
listed as  the  Pioneer  Corps ;  they  were  guided  by  a  famous  elephant  hunter ; 
they  were  commanded  by  a  mining  operator,  now  chairman  of  several 
London  companies;  the  rank  and  file  included  a  large  number  of  men 


20  THE    MINER    AS   A    PIONEER   OP    CIVILIZATION 

familiar  with  mining  at  Kimberley  and  Johannesburg.    Literally,  they  pre 
pared  the  way  for  others,  and  started  the  mineral  exploration  that  opened 
the  interior  of  South  Africa  to  orderly  development  and  civilized  habita- 
tion from  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the  sources  of  the  Nile! 

West  Africa  as  a  mining  region  is  identified  historically  with  the  Gold 
Coast,  a  traditional  source  of  wealth.  Herodotus  speaks  of  the  Carthagin- 
ians as  receiving  gold  from  native  tribes  that  traded  with  wild  people  on 
the  west  coast  of  Africa.  During  the  medieval  period  Europe  obtained 
most  of  its  scanty  imports  of  gold  from  this  source.  Successive  traders 
made  an  effort  to  lay  hands  on  the  legendary  treasure  of  the  region.  But 
they  proved  abortive.  A  malarial  shore  and  a  dense  jungle  blocked  the 
passage  of  the  white  man.  Nevertheless,  during  the  earlier  half  of  the  19th 
century  the  export  of  gold  is  estimated  to  have  averaged  £350,000,  or  $1,- 
750,000  per  annum,  all  of  it  the  gleanings  of  native  workers.  Not  until 
1880  did  real  mining  begin,  on  the  initiative  of  an  intrepid  Frenchman, 
Marie  Joseph  Bonnat.  An  orphan,  first  a  shoeblack  and  subsequently  a 
chef  in  a  Paris  hotel,  he  met  there  two  ivory-hunters  to  whom  he  offered 
his  services  for  one  year  without  pay.  He  was  engaged,  and  went  with 
them  to  West  Africa.  When  they  retired  from  business,  two  years  later, 
they  bequeathed  their  equipment  to  him.  Thereupon  he  went  into  busi- 
ness on  his  own  account.  On  one  of  his  ivory-hunting  journeys  he  was 
captured  by  the  Ashantis  and  remained  a  prisoner  in  the  king's  kraal  for 
three  years,  until  released  by  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley,  in  1874,  on  the  occasion 
of  the  Coomassie  campaign.  While  a  captive  he  saw  the  king's  treasures 
of  gold  and  heard  of  the  diggings  on  the  Tarkwa  range.  When  liberated, 
he  obtained  a  concession  from  the  king  of  Eastern  Wassau,  and  returned 
to  Paris,  where,  in  1877,  a  company  called  the  Cote  d'Or  was  organized 
by  him  to  operate  the  mines  now  known  as  the  Taquah  and  Abosso.  Forth- 
with other  traders  obtained  concessions  and  took  them  to  London,  where 
two  or  three  companies  were  formed.  But  these  early  enterprises  did  not 
prosper.  As  was  the  case  in  Rhodesia  at  first,  the  lack  of  transport,  the 
scarcity  of  supplies,  and  sickness  among  the  pioneers  crippled  operations. 
Bonnat  himself  did  not  live  to  see  the  fruit  of  his  labors ;  he  died  at  Taquah 
in  1881.  His  was  a  gallant  spirit  worthy  to  rank  among  the  best  of  the 
heroic  forerunners  of  civilization. 

As  a  sequel  to  gold  mining  in  West  Africa  came  the  clearing  of  the 
bush,  the  training  of  the  natives,  the  building  of  a  railway,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  sanitary  reforms.  Then  followed  the  finding  of  tin  on  the  high- 
lands east  of  the  Niger,  where  now  a  thriving  industry  is  established.  This, 
in  turn,  has  admitted  light  and  air  into  the  tropical  jungle,  facilitated  the 
establishment  of  cocoa,  rubber,  and  cotton  culture,  and  brought  a  dark 
corner  of  the  earth  within  touch  of  the  vitalizing  forces  of  industrial 
progress. 

And  now,  for  our  last  illustration,  we  go  to  Canada.  The  story  of  the 
Yukon  is  so  recent  as  only  to  need  recalling.  That  remote  corner  of  the 
North  American  continent  was  slow  to  be  unveiled.  The  mountains  guard- 


THE   MINER   AS    A   PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION  21 

ing  the  coast  discouraged  the  Russians  who  crossed  the  sea  from  Kamchat- 
ka ;  the  main  range  barred  the  way  of  the  English  fur-traders  and  French 
voyageurs  who  came  overland.  In  1843  the  Russian  Zagoskin  ascended  the 
Yukon  as  far  as  the  Tartana,  and  about  the  same  time  Robert  Campbell,  an 
agent  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  descended  the  river  to  its  confluence 
with  the  Porcupine.  But  the  only  object  of  these  intrusions  into  the  in- 
hospitable wilderness  was  the  trade  in  furs.  No  whisper  of  gold  was 
heard. 

The  first  gold  to  come  from  the  Yukon  consisted  of  two  nuggets  obtained 
from  an  Indian  in  1880.  Small  parties  of  prospectors  began  to  test  the 
creek-bottoms.  Encouraging  discoveries  were  made,  but  none  of  them  was 
remarkable;  moreover,  the  precarious  food  supply  and  the  shortness  of 
the  season  checked  enthusiasm.  In  1896  the  annual  output  of  gold  was 
about  $1,000,000,  of  which  only  $300,000  came  from  Canadian  territory, 
for  the  more  productive  diggings  were  on  the  Alaskan,  or  American,  side 
of  the  boundary,  which  is  about  50  miles  below  Dawson,  where  the  waters 
of  the  Klondike  mingle  with  those  of  the  Yukon.  Up  to  that  time  this  vast 
watershed  was  of  no  particular  consequence  as  a  mining  region.  Then 
suddenly,  out  of  a  clear  sky,  came  the  tremendous  shout  of  a  great  gold 
discovery. 

On  July  14,  1897,  the  steamship  Excelsior  arrived  at  San  Francisco 
bringing  miners  laden  with  sacks  of  gold.  They  told  stories  of  a  new 
Eldorado  in  the  North,  in  the  valley  of  the  Klondike,  on  the  edge  of  the 
Arctic.  Again  the  world  heard  the  bugle-call  of  adventure.  The  response 
was  instant.  During  the  following  winter  33,000  people  landed  at  Skagway 
on  their  way  to  the  Klondike.  An  eager  procession  climbed  the  passes 
that  led  over  the  coast  range  to  the  headwaters  of  the  Yukon,  down  which 
they  voyaged  in  boats  and  rafts  to  Dawson.  The  horrors  of  that  scramble 
are  almost  forgotten.  Men,  and  women  also,  devoid  of  experience,  physi- 
cally unfit,  laden  with  packs,  toiled  up  the  long  ascent  in  a  frenzy  to  lay 
hands  on  the  gold.  Before  this  mob  reached  the  diggings  the  richest 
ground  had  been  located  by  the  miners  and  traders  previously  in  the 
country.  Yet  some  of  the  newcomers  also  fared  well.  The  romance  of  the 
rush  was  not  with  the  luckless  wastrels,  the  greedy  courtezans,  or  the 
drunken  desperadoes,  but  with  the  quiet  strong  men  who  greatly  endured 
and  nobly  overcame  the  trials  of  an  unaccustomed  life,  and  returned  home 
to  become  leaders  in  a  peaceful  community. 

In  1898,  the  Klondike  yielded  $10,000,000,  and  in  1901,  $22,000,000.  The 
total  output  so  far  has  been  $150,000,000. 

The  story  of  the  discovery  remains  to  be  told.  In  the  summer  of  1896 
Robert  Henderson,  a  Nova  Scotian,  who  had  mined  in  Colorado,  found 
gold  across  the  divide  from  the  Klondike.  At  this  time  George  Carmack, 
a  squaw  man,  being  short  of  fresh  meat,  went  up  the  valley  of  the  Klondike 
in  search  of  moose.  Two  Indians  went  with  him.  Turning  up  one  of  the 
tributary  creeks,  they  worked  their  passage  through  the  thick  underbush 
and  the  thicker  mosquitoes  until  fatigue  necessitated  a  halt.  While  rest- 


22  THE   MINER   AS   A   PIONEER   OF    CIVILIZATION 

ing,  the  two  Indians  panned  the  gravel  and  found  gold.  Crossing  the 
divide,  Carmack  and  his  Indian  friends  visited  Henderson's  camp,  but 
they  said  nothing  to  him  about  their  discovery,  for  he  showed  a  dislike  of 
Indians.  Returning,  they  found  more  gold  on  the  same  creek,  now  famous 
as  Bonanza.  Thereupon,  Carmack  and  each  of  the  Indians  located  a 
claim.  That  was  011  August  17,  1896.  Putting  the  gold  they  had  panned 
into  a  cartridge-shell,  they  hastened  down  the  Yukon  to  Fortymile,  which 
was  the  nearest  recording  office. 

This  event  opened  a  new  province  to  human  industry.  Within  a  couple 
of  years  big  steamers  were  ploughing  the  waters  of  the  Yukon,  a  railway 
had  been  constructed  over  the  coast  range,  the  telegraph  had  linked  the 
northern  frontier  with  the  nerve  centres  of  the  world,  and  new  communi- 
ties had  arisen  in  the  very  heart  of  a  vast  solitude.  It  was  not  long  before 
agriculture  was  started  close  to  the  Arctic  circle  and  children  played 
where  lately  moose  and  caribou  had  roamed  at  will.  Once  more,  the  miner 
had  started  the  springs  of  life  and  called  a  new  world  into  being. 

Other  examples  of  pioneer  work  might  be  instanced,  did  time  permit. 

/  You  will  have  noted  that  the  lure  of  gold  was  the  incentive  to  most  of 

I  these  explorations.     The  reason  is  obvious.     Gold  is  a  metal  occurring  in 

nature  in  a  nearly  pure  state;  in  its  alluvial  form  it  is  readily  separable 

from  the  river  gravel ;  and  even  from  its  matrix  in  the  rock  it  is  extracted 

by  easy  methods.    Moreover,  it  commands  a  high  price,  and  a  free  market, 

so  that  it  can  be  transported  in  small  bulk  and  sold  in  unlimited  quantity. 

/   Gold  mining,  therefore,  has  been  the  prelude  to  the  exploitation  of  the 

base  metals  existing  in  complex  ores.     The  simple  operations  of  the  gold 

miner  have  preceded  the  establishment  of  economic  conditions  favorable 

to  the  more  complicated  business  of  winning  the  other  metals. 

The  British  empire  and  the  American  commonwealth  alike  have  ad- 
vanced in  the  track  of  the  miner.  He  made  the  great  West  a  part  of  your 
heritage;  he  conquered  the  Overseas  Dominions  more  truly  than  the 
soldiers  of  the  King.  The  curtains  that  hid  Central  Africa  were  parted 
momentarily  by  the  slave-trader,  the  elephant  hunter,  and  the  missionary, 
but  when  these  emerged  those  curtains  closed  again.  It  was  left  to  the 
miner  to  place  his  candle  so  that  like  "a  good  deed  in  a  naughty  world" 
it  might  illumine  a  path  for  human  industry.  The  primeval  forests,  the 
sunlit  valleys,  and  the  grassy  plains  of  Australia  remained  as  they  were 
in  the  morning  of  time  until  the  prospector  called  for  his  own  people  to 
come  thither  across  the  sea.  The  fur-trader  traversed  the  snow-clad  plains 
and  penetrated  the  pine-clad  mountains  of  the  Canadian  Northwest;  the 
salmon-fisher  sailed  into  the  long  estuaries;  but  neither  of  them  touched 
the  heart  of  that  great  lone  land.  Not  until  the  pick  of  the  miner  awoke 
echoes  that  had  slumbered  since  creation  did  the  vast  solitude  respond  to 
the  pulsations  of  human  endeavor.  Hunters,  traders,  even  soldiers  and 
farmers,  crossed  the  prairies  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  adventured  over  the  desert  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  They  carried  the 
flag,  and  they  hoisted  it  over  the  new  domain,  but  it  was  an  enpty  conquest 


THE   MINER   AS   A   PIONEER  OP   CIVILIZATION  23 

and  a  vain  annexation  until  the  miner  spoke  the  word  that  set  the  world 
aflame. 

After  the  prospector  has  come  the  mining  engineer.  The  scout  has  gone 
in  advance  of  the  captain  of  industry.  Those  of  you  who  have  crossed  the 
range  in  winter  know  how  the  leader  breaks  the  trail  by  leaving  foot- 
prints into  which  his  followers  tread,  step  by  step,  greatly  to  the  safety  and 
ease  of  their  travel.  That  is  what  the  mineral  explorer  has  done  for  the 
mining  engineer.  That  is  what  the  mining  engineer  has  done  for  those 
behind  him.  Some  of  you  have  been  prospectors  as  well  as  engineers. 

"Have  you  known  the  Great  White  silence,  not  a  snow-gemmed  twig  a-quiver? 
''Have  you  broken  trail  on  snowshoes;  mushed  your  huskies  up  the  river? 
"Have  you  marked  the  map's  void  spaces, 
"Pelt  the  savage  strength  of  brute  in  every  thew?" 

Again,  I  ask  you  to  recall  how  you  threaded  the  pathless  forest  on  your 
way  to  examine  a  new  mineral  discovery.  On  the  trees  at  intervals  you 
have  seen  that  the  bark  was  chipped.  The  trail  has  been  '  blazed '  by  the 
prospector,  making  it  easy  for  you  and  others  to  follow.  That  is  what 
the  miner  has  done  in  a  larger  way  for  civilization.  He  has  done  it  with 
geographical  exuberance  and  equatorial  amplitude.  From  "the  stark 
and  sullen  solitudes  that  sentinel  the  Pole"  to  the  "steaming  stillness  of 
the  orchid-scented  glade"  in  the  Tropics,  he  has  left  his  mark.  You  know 
that.  No  need  for  the  prospector  to  complain  to  you,  like  Kipling's 
explorer : 

"Well  I  know  who'll  take  the  credit;  all  the  clever  chaps  that  followed — 
"Came  a  dozen  men  together — never  knew  my  desert  fears; 
"Tracked  me  by  the  camps  I'd  quitted,  used  the  water  holes  I'd  hollowed. 
"They'll  go  back  and  do  the  talking.    They'll  be  called  the  Pioneers!" 

No ;  not  by  the  men  of  the  Columbia  School  of  Mines,  who  have  shared  the 
prospectors'  camp-fire,  his  blankets,  his  flapjacks,  his  bacon  and  beans. 
You  will  give  credit  to  whom  it  belongs.  To  the  man  with  the  faith  of  a 
child  and  the  heart  of  a  viking,  to  the  man  who  has  tramped  and  toiled 
until  he  heard  * t  the  mile-wide  mutterings  of  unimagined  rivers  and:  beyond 
the  nameless  timber  saw  illimitable  plains;"  to  the  miner  who  has  crossed 
the  last  range  of  all  and  lies  in  the  only  prospect-hole  he  could  not  dig; 
to  the  man  who  was  the  herald  of  empire  and  the  pioneer  of  industry;  to 
him  who  blazed  the  trail. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  "ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $I.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 

OVERDUE. 


APR    1.7   1335 


MAR    4  1940 


DEC  261940W 


lNovt)if? 


7Sep'55GB 


JANl  2 1956  LU 


LD  21-100m-8,'34 


uayiora  oros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
PAT.  JAN.  21. 1901 


387363 


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